Title – Deadpan (2022) 

Directors – Walrus (Matt Maule & Tom Stephens)

Cast – Ben Hunter, Dylan Silcock, Chrissy Mae Valentine

Plot – Looking forward to a weekend away in a remote lodge where he can enjoy the company of his new girlfriend, care worker Ryan (Hunter) finds his quiet retreat interrupted in a life-changing way. 

“You look depressed”

Review by Eddie on 22/12/2022

We all know and love that feeling of getting away from the daily grind and taking a moment to sit back, smell the roses and enjoy life the way in which it supposed to be enjoyed in theory. 

What we don’t so much love is a quiet retreat being rudely interrupted by an unexpected guest, that in turn causes us to come face to face with a life changing situation, a situation that our Australian short film protaginst Ryan encounters in Walrus’s dark comedy Deadpan. 

Something you could see coming from the minds of early days Coen Brothers, Deadpan clocks in at under 10 minutes in length but Matt Maule and Tom Stephen’s (aka Walrus) film of which they wrote, shot and edited in the space of a month has enough strong components to warrant a viewing for anyone willing to take their laughs with more than a pinch of dark flavoured salt. 

Filmed well by the duo in a black and white format, one striking element of Deadpan is the visual sheen the two filmmakers bring to their tale, while the central performance of Ben Hunter as the unfortunate and down on his luck Ryan is noteworthy also, with one hoping the actor can continue to ply away on his trade as he works towards larger roles into the future. 

There’s no long standing messages to take away from proceedings here and there’s not a particular theme Deadpan is trying to unwrap but that matters little when everything is said and done as quickly as it is here with all major players involved right to walk away content with what they managed to achieve in such a short space of time. 

Final Say – 

Deadpan is a fast-paced and baggage free Australian short film that shines in its darkly comic plot. 

3 1/2 brutally honest clients out of 5 

Find out more or watch Deadpan via this link